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The Filibuster Burns in a Reichstag Fire in the U.S. Senate
Townhall.com ^ | November 22, 2013 | George Jarkesky

Posted on 11/23/2013 4:37:21 PM PST by Kaslin

A Reichstag Fire has struck the U.S. Senate: Under the Democrats, it has been decided to basically end the filibuster. This is anti-democratic, and shows how todays Democrats do not deserve to be called 'democratic' anymore. There is not an ounce of republicanism or American-style democracy within this recent move. It is hypocritical-to-the-extreme to call them Democratic anymore.

By overturning the filibuster, which has been a fundamental piece of our democratic traditions and Senatorial landscape since the republic was founded, the progressives have shown how little they care for historical presidents. What they care about is their self-centered ends - the means has lost importance to these Enemies of Freedom, the rising political class. It's always power, power, and more power; they will say or do whatever they have to, and sell whatever apparently sacred principle or heritage they were passed down, for one thing: power.

Such desperate, wanton anti-democratic maneuverings bring to my mind Hitler's 1933 Reichstag Fire. Under false pretenses, the Nazis burned down the Reichstag - or Germany's version of the U.S. Congress. The Nazi propaganda blamed the inferno on three radical communists, but historians now know the Nazis themselves lit the Reichstag on fire, so Hitler could consolidate power.

Hitler did just that, shortly after by promulgating the Reichstag Fire Decree, which suspended most of the checks and balances of the German Weimar republic. This was the inflection point, historians now say, when Germany really picked up the pace moving into Hitler's unchallenged dictatorship.

Indeed, eliminating the famed and esteemed filibuster - which even the so-called Democratic Party supported en masse for most of their history and most heartily even in 2005. The so called “rich” business owners and American savers will now have to fork over even more money to fund the Left's political operations and expansion because of this travesty against our democracy.

The Leftists are now more powerful in America than ever before.

What the apparent pretext was for eliminating the filibuster was the refusal of Senate Republicans to confirm three judges to a U.S. Appeals Court. I'm sorry to my readers, but that strikes me as a pretty contrived pretext to eliminate a 200-year-plus, tried and true, democratic tradition.

This is a naked and ugly power grab; evil to its core!

What will pro-democracy activists do in America in response to this? It is likely they will try to rally many moderate Leftists to their cause. Could we see a Movement to Restore the Filibuster? I hope so; this may be the spark that gets even more Americans on-board with ideas like Mark Levin's push to roll back the 'Post-Constitutional Age in America'.

Many anti-democrats in the United States go on propaganda rampages declaring that the filibuster is an antiquated tradition, which is horribly abused now, and the Senate should be congratulated for obliterating this noble element of American republicanism. Yet, what these small minded propagandists fail to mention is the tradition of the filibuster has acted as a vital protection for the slight minority. By removing minority protections, we only hasten the inevitable day when people in power after trampling the minority will then do the same to the majority.

I hate to be cliché: Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely?

The truth is they don't care about that. These propagandists and their financial backers are in this for themselves, and themselves alone to secure their position in the new American Political Class. What enriches them is what counts. It is a profitable game to support greater power for government, big corporations, big banks, big Hollywood studios, and big unions. If you play it well, and support the move power grab toward fascism/communism you may get a seat over and above everyone else as an elite member of the new Political Class.

The larger cultural and democratic consequences are, well, disastrous. Freedom in America is DEAD, it lies in a coffin, and even though I hope and pray it can someday resurrect, this is another nail in American freedoms coffin.

What this small version of the Reichstag Fire will unleash is nothing but an uglier, more corrupt country. People want to say it will make America work better and the Senate will operate more smoothly - a latter-day version of Hitler's 'Making the Trains Run on Time' - but I would prefer the trains run late and behind schedule if I have my freedoms and halt the takeover of state promoted socialism.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
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1 posted on 11/23/2013 4:37:21 PM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

It was a raw power grab so that they can fill the courts and bureaucracies with the most far left Marxists that Obastard can find.


2 posted on 11/23/2013 4:42:25 PM PST by Blood of Tyrants (From time to time the.tree of liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots.)
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To: Kaslin

‘how little they care for historical presidents’

George needs to re-tune his grammar software. The word is “precedents”.


3 posted on 11/23/2013 4:42:50 PM PST by ArmstedFragg (hoaxy dopey changey)
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To: Kaslin

The current attitude of the Democrats in the senate really supports repealing the seventeenth amendment.


4 posted on 11/23/2013 4:52:59 PM PST by Yogafist
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To: Kaslin

Actually, it IS Democratic, and that’s the problem. America, as founded, is a REPUBLIC. Removing the rules for filibuster means the Republic is dead and mob rule is now in place.


5 posted on 11/23/2013 5:00:08 PM PST by rarestia (It's time to water the Tree of Liberty.)
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To: Kaslin
I hoisted my Gadsden flag today.....all the neighbors know that when it's up, Batavia is pissed off at the 'Rats again.

I suppose it should just be a fulltimer at this stage.....sigh.

6 posted on 11/23/2013 5:02:00 PM PST by ErnBatavia (The 0baMao Experiment: Abject Failure)
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To: ArmstedFragg

Although it is the wrong grammar it does not show up in the spellchecker


7 posted on 11/23/2013 5:03:58 PM PST by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: Kaslin

The author needs to stop calling the dropping of the filibuster “anti-democratic” when the filibuster is fundamentally a limit on democracy. They’re confusing definitions in their argument. It’s distracting and confusing.


8 posted on 11/23/2013 5:09:44 PM PST by Tallguy (between taglines...)
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To: ErnBatavia

Time to fly it up-side down.


9 posted on 11/23/2013 5:14:05 PM PST by Paladin2
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To: rarestia
Won't be long now before the ball goes up. Either that, or we shuffle off into History without a whimper.

;-\

10 posted on 11/23/2013 5:29:21 PM PST by Gargantua (Spunky needs a hobby. Maybe a girlfriend... ;^)
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To: Paladin2
Nope - Gadsen Flag's got actual "words" on it.....even though they're in English, I want those with 'special needs' to get my drift.

No chinamen in this area, so upside down or sideways or at a slant ain't gonna cut it.

11 posted on 11/23/2013 5:29:41 PM PST by ErnBatavia (The 0baMao Experiment: Abject Failure)
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To: Gargantua

Be mindful here... Harry Reid, senator from Nevada, is the reason for the decline of the public. When the history books are written, he will be referred to as the usher of America’s demise.

The media plays it off as “Oh no, Harry Reid went ‘nuclear,’” but if you truly think about it, with the full weight of American history as a guide, Harry Reid has effected a coup in a way that progressives have hoped for since the early 20th century. Harry Reid, not Barack Obama, has turned America from a representative republic into a simple, mob rule democracy. Our voices mean nothing now. Literally, nothing.


12 posted on 11/23/2013 5:32:40 PM PST by rarestia (It's time to water the Tree of Liberty.)
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To: Kaslin

Wrong.

Ending the filibuster was entirely and purely democratic.

That’s why our founders loathed democracy and did what they could to prevent it taking over our republic.


13 posted on 11/23/2013 5:40:58 PM PST by Jim Noble (When strong, avoid them. Attack their weaknesses. Emerge to their surprise.)
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To: Kaslin
The GOP should come out swinging and state unequivocally that government is too big, corrupt, dishonest, and cannot be trusted with the Freedom of the People.

A radical anti-big-government stance is the only hope of reversing the out-of-control Tyrannical trend which has been snowballing for the last several decades.

Timidity from the GOP is a recipe for disaster. I wish they could understand that, but they are so tentative and submissive that I don't hold out much hope.

The welfare state and collectivist authoritarianism cannot be fought half-assed. Resistance must be fierce, vocal, and uncompromising.

14 posted on 11/23/2013 6:01:43 PM PST by sargon (I don't like the sound of these here Boncentration Bamps!)
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To: Kaslin

As Benjamin Franklin said - Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner - or in our case, 40 million freeloaders and 30 million productive citizens voting on government handouts.


15 posted on 11/23/2013 6:29:13 PM PST by Junk Silver
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To: Kaslin
This is anti-democratic, and shows how todays Democrats do not deserve to be called 'democratic' anymore.

I disagree with this statement. Completely. By doing away with the filibuster, the leftist demonrats have turned the senate into a pure democracy, aka "mob rule." Something that the founders despised.

Mark

16 posted on 11/23/2013 6:55:57 PM PST by MarkL (Do I really look like a guy with a plan?)
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To: Yogafist

Indeed.


17 posted on 11/23/2013 10:04:02 PM PST by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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To: ErnBatavia

Leave it up full time ‘til 0 is gone. I’ve had my USofA flag decal upside down for a few years, now. Some who see it don’t even know what that means.


18 posted on 11/23/2013 10:08:45 PM PST by Jane Long (While Marxists continue the fundamental transformation of the USA, progressive RINOs assist!)
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To: Kaslin

Just goes to prove that we have lost our Nation - all anyone ever does is piss and moan about how it ain’t right. No action = no results and the Left is taking all the actions while we piss and moan and type witty things on our keyboards..


19 posted on 11/24/2013 4:09:00 AM PST by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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To: rarestia
When they went from paper ballots that could be counted and, most importantly, verified...

...to these electronic "voting machines..."

...we lost our voices in the political arena. The almost totally Democrat, George Soros-backed State Attorneys General and Secretaries of State (who verify election results State by State) need only tell us whatever they want us to hear, and we have absolutely no mechanism for challenging or proving how the votes actually fell.

There is no more America. Not the country I grew up in, anyway. We've gone from "The Greatest Generation" to "The Biggest Degenerates" in 50 years.

And we have nobody but ourselves to blame, because we watched and let it happen.

8^|

20 posted on 11/24/2013 10:56:19 AM PST by Gargantua (Some chimps just aren't happy unless they're controlling others... ;^)
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